Friday, November 30, 2012

Meet Evie (I always wanted to name a daughter that!) who will be picked up Christmas Eve (see how the name fits?) and here on Christmas morning to surprise the kids. This is our first real pet (because fish and dust bunnies aren't real pets). If you know my kids in real life - DO NOT TELL THEM!! Sorry I had to yell, but I want them to be completely surprised :)

2) We took the kids to see Wreck-it-Ralph which was cute but led me to start writing a whole post about good/evil that I may never publish since I can't quite articulate why this movie didn't sit well with me.

3) I bought some fresh fish the other day, and look at the receipt:

They gave me a senior discount! What the heck? I'm hoping they thought I was a senior in college ;) I was going to go back and tell them they had undercharged me when I realized I hadn't even bought haddock, I had purchased the less expensive cod. So I was overcharged and insulted. Boo.

4) John-Paul was feeling left out that he wasn't having some medical issues like his mom and decided to have abdomen pains right where his appendix is starting on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, I took him to the doctor who tested his urine in case it was an infection (it came back negative) and said he had no other symptoms of appendicitis but we would know when to bring him into the hospital because he would be doubled over in pain. Wednesday came and he seemed fine. Thursday morning he woke up feeling sick and vomited He stayed with the baby's nanny all day and I'm home with him today. He's back to feeling fine. What gives?

5) A beautiful sunset on my afternoon walk Wednesday (it was only 4:20!!)

6) From the "Why Do We Even Buy Toys?" Files:

7) I only need one more follower to get to 200 which seems huge to me, but I know is way less than all of the great bloggers that I love to read (and apparently everybody else does too).

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

In age order from youngest to oldest...buckle up because here we go....

Xander, Xander, Xander, what will become of Xander? My 16 month old (yesterday!) not so little boy. He is still huge, still cutting his 4 molars, and still screaming instead of using his inside voice. You gots to be loud to be heard in this house, ya know? He is thriving under the loving care of his Portuguese nanny who stuffs him full of soup, veggies, chourizo, and milk all day long. He can understand both English and Portuguese which is priceless but doesn't say too many words (is it his age?) which is the opposite of priceless. Pricey? That doesn't seem right.

He'll thank me later for not showing too much skin in this picture.

But then get mad about this one, perhaps.

Ewe's not fat, ewe's fluffy.

Maggie Moo is about to turn FIVE on Saturday!

Here she is with her boyfriend that she swears she's going to marry, Robby. She is in the early reading stages (knows a lot of small words, sounds out the rest) and is into dolls, fashion, and her girl friends. She talks about the little girls in her class all the time which only makes me wish she had a sister even more. But then I think about having two Maggie's, and I think God knew what He was doing (duh)! She is a bit high maintenance, but so sweet, funny and loves to sing and dance. She loved playing soccer with her brothers (whom she always refers to as "my boys") and can't wait to start *real* (as opposed to the ones at the YMCA) swimming lessons at the college pool in the spring.

Eamon is a sweet and affectionate Kindergartner. He loves cuddling up on our laps and sometimes Phil says he gets a little handsy with me, but I'll take it because he'll be a big guy in no time who won't want to sit in his mom's lap anymore. He's started drawing like crazy lately, and will take a notebook into the family room and draw the characters he sees on his nightly tv show. This picture is dark, but I think you can make out that he's drawing Quack from Peep.

He is doing awesome at school, and only gets in trouble sometimes for talking to his cousin (and BFF), Tommy, who's in the same class. He still has a lisp and we will be seeing a speech pathologist in December to see what we can do. The public school system said he was "too intelligent to qualify for services". Ummmm, he needs help with his speech, not his intelligence. Wasted tax dollars.

Andrew is my 8 year old superhero in disguise. I mean, just look at this flying leap:

No fear, this one. Never has had any. Everything comes easy to him and his one struggle is his temper. I guess we can't all be prefect, huh? He has his mother's Irish temper that is quick to flare up but doesn't hold a grudge. He's doing wonderfully in school and gets really goofy with his friends, as is age appropriate. He still dreams of playing for the Patriots, but we won't let him play football until he's 18 so that's gonna take a lot of cramming to rise to the professional level in his college years ;) I know, we're mean parents like that. We're also nixing ice hockey because so many of the bad boys around here play it. Not that all ice hockey players are mean, but all the mean boys do happen to be ice hockey players. Just kidding! I just don't want him in any sport that praises tackling/fighting of any kind. Because he would totally be the kid with no front teeth and a crooked broken nose.

John-Paul is 3 months shy from being double digits, even though Phil is definitely too young to have a ten year old. Breaking news: I just got the green light from Lotus that I can go ahead and post the following pictures:

Do you see what I see?

A closer look...

So cute!

John-Paul is such a good big brother. Always helpful (unless his nose is stuck in a book and he can't hear us) and always forgetful! He's basically Brick Heck without the whispering and whooping ticks.

He sets a great example for the younger kids in the family and loves to play sports even when he's not the best on the team :) He has an artistic side and prefers reading or creating experiments to watching football on tv, which his Dad just does.not.understand.

Phil is the picture hater extraordinaire (so we'll just have to use a repeat):

This picture suits him perfectly - a totally involved Dad who's willing to do the dirty work and not complain about it. Plus he cooks and cleans, and he's super easy on the eyes :) What more could a girl want? Phil is still the Department Chair of Theology at our Catholic high school, and has one internship until he's done with his latest Master's in Administration.

Me, posing last night with my lookalike, Eamon and his lookalike, Xander. Do you agree?

So just to update you on the weird medical stuff going on with me....I should probably wait until I have answers, but I'm more of an oversharer. Sorry.

I went to my doctor yesterday who drew more blood to test my thyroid levels again (they were very low on Friday night at the ER) and some other stuff. He felt my neck and said my thyroid felt "stiff" and ordered an ultrasound for tomorrow afternoon. I also happened to get Raynaud's disease on Sunday when I discovered that my right thumb and knuckles were blue. Like scary blue. I guess it can be caused by stress, so I'm hoping that if it's my thyroid that's influencing my stress levels, we can get that figured out and all these weird symptoms will stop.

So that's the family update, and if you've read the whole thing, you're ah-mazing.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

...especially when your Pennsylvania cousins have to go back home and you don't know when you're going to see them again.

My kids loving playing with someone so close to their age, and the cousins get to be scandalized by all the worldly and trendy things my kids know about while they stay pure and innocent in homeschool ;)

Group hug!! And a monkey.

Wait, you forgot about me!

One babe and two babies :)

In other news, I had my first* panic attack and ended up in the ER, not knowing if I was dehydrated or having a heart attack or what was happening. It is VERY scary to have a panic attack, I actually thought I was going to die (that sounds so dramatic, but it's the truth) because I could not breathe right and was lightheaded and dizzy and my hands were numb and my body was violently shaking.

Thankfully my brother and sister-in-law were here to take care of all the kids while Phil took me to the hospital. They discovered that I have a low functioning thyroid and so I will be calling my doctor on Monday to have further testing done. Maybe if they can get my thyroid functioning properly, I will have a LOT of my weird symptoms go away that I found out could all possibly be linked to hypothyroidism. Anyway, knowledge is power, and I need answers.

Ok, I've TMIed the bajingas out of you, so I'll sign off for now.

Ta ta!

*While I was waiting in the ER to be fixed, I started recalling a few incidents through my life where my breathing would get off-kilter and I would be close to fainting. I always came up with a reason for them (dehydrated, tired, too much incense at church) but now I'm wondering if it was panic attacks this whole time.